Enter a Messenger. MESS. The English are embattled, you French peers. CON. To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse! Do but behold yond poor and starved band, The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them. Enter GRANDPRÉ. What's to say? GRAND. Why do you stay so long, my lords of Yond island carrions,(1) desperate of their bones, Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips, The gum down-roping from their pale-dead a The gimmal-bit-] Spelt Iymold, in the old text. A bit in two parts; and so called from the Latin gemellus, double or twinned. b1 stay but for my guard; on, &c.] A correspondent of Mr. Knight's ingeniously suggests, what certainly seems called for by the context, that we ought to read, "I stay but for my guidon.-To the field!" The emendation is enforced, too, by a passage in Holinshed, where, speaking of the French, he says, "They thought themselves so sure of victory, that diverse of the noblemen made such haste towards the battle, that they left many of their servants and men of war behind them, and some of them would not once Lies foul with chaw'd grass, still and motionless; To demonstrate the life of such a battle CON. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death. DAU. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits, And give their fasting horses provender, CON. I stay but for my guard; on, to the field: I will the banner from a trumpet take, [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The English Camp. Enter the English Host; GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, SALISBURY, and WESTMORELAND. GLO. Where is the king? BED. The king himself is rode to view their battle. WEST. Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. EXE. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh. SAL. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. c God buy' you, princes all; I'll to my charge: EXE. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly today: And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it," O that we now had here stay for their standards; as amongst other the Duke of Brabant when his standard was not come, caused a banner to be taken from a trumpet, and fastened to a speare, the which he comanded to be borne before him, instead of a standard." e God buy' gou, princes all;] God buy' is the same as our "Good-bye," a corruption of "God be with you;" and in this instance, for the sake of the metre, the old form of it should be retained. d And yet I do thee wrong, &c.] The last two lines in this speech are annexed to the preceding one of Bedford in the folio: the present arrangement was suggested by Thirlby. For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, MONT. Once more I come to know of thee, king Harry, mercy, If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, K. HEN. Bid them achieve me, and then sell former answer my bones. • Familiar in their mouths as household words,-] So the quartos. In the folio the line runs, "Familiar in his mouth as household words." d Shall gentle his condition:] "King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a right by inheritance, or grant, to assume coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and, I think, these last were allowed the chief seats of honour at all feasts and publick meetings."-TOLLET. Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus? The man that once did sell the lion's skin While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him. A many of our bodies shall no doubt Find native graves; upon the which, I trust, Shall witness live in brass of this day's work: And those that leave their valiant bones in France, Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills, They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet them, And draw their honours reeking up to heaven, Let me speak proudly :-Tell the constable a Shall witness live in brass-] The effigy, engraved on brass, of John Leventhorp, Esq. one of the heroes of Agincourt, who died in 1433, still remains in Sawbridgeworth church, Herts. b I fear thou wilt once more come again for ransom.] This is not in the quartos; and the folio has, "I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom." e Quality! cality! construe me, art thou a gentleman ?] In the folio (the line is not found in the quartos) this is printed,"Qualitie calmie custure me." Malone, having met with "A Sonet of a Lover in the Praise of his Lady, to Calen o custure me, sung at every line's end," concluded that the incomprehensible jargon of the folio was nothing else than this very burden, and he arcordingly gave the line, "Quality? Calen o custure me." Subsequently, Boswell discovered that "Callino, castore me" is an old Irish song, still preserved in Playford's "Musical Companion." The line is now, therefore, usually printed,― Enter the DUKE of YORK. YORK. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg The leading of the vaward. K. HEN. Take it, brave York.-Now, soldiers, march away: And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day! [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-The Field of Battle. Alarums; Excursions. Enter PISTOL, French Soldier, and Boy. PIST. Yield, cur! FR. SOL. Je pense, que vous êtes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité. PIST. Quality! cality! construe me, art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? discuss! FR. SOL. O seigneur Dieu ! PIST. O signieur Dew should be a gentleman:Perpend my words, O signieur Dew, and mark ;O signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,d Except, O signieur, thou do give to me Egregious ransom. FR. SOL. O, prennez miséricorde! ayez pitié de moi ! [moys; PIST. Moy shall not serve, I will have forty For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat, In drops of crimson blood. e FR. SOL. Est-il impossible d'échapper la force de ton bras? This solution of the difficulty is certainly curious and very captivating; but to us the idea of Pistol holding a prisoner by the threat and quoting the fag end of a ballad at the same moment, is too preposterous, and in default of any better explanation of the mysterious syllables, we have adopted that of Warburton. d On point of fox,-] The modern editors all agree in informing us that "Fox was an old cant word for a sword;" but why a sword was so called none of them appears to have been aware. The name was given from the circumstance that Andrea Ferrara, and, since his time, other foreign sword-cutlers, adopted a fox as the blade-mark of their weapons. Swords, with a running-fox rudely engraved on the blades, are still occasionally to be met with in the old curiosity-shops of London. e For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat,-] Rim was a term formerly used, not very definitively, for a part of the intestines; but Pistol's rim (the folio spells it rymme) was, perhaps, as Mr. Knight conjectured, no more than a word coined for the non e, in mimickry of the Frenchman's guttural pronunciation. Boy. He says, his name is-master Fer. PIST. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him:-discuss the same in French unto him. Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk. PIST. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat. FR. SOL. Que dit-il, monsieur? Box. Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous prêt; car ce soldat ici est disposé tout à cette heure de couper votre gorge. PIST. Oui, coupe le gorge, par ma foi, Unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns; FR. SOL. O, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison: gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cents écus. PIST. What are his words? Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a good house, and for his ransom, ne will give you two hundred crowns. PIST. Tell him my fury shall abate, And I the crowns will take. FR. SOL. Petit monsieur, que dit-il ? Box. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner aucun prisonnier; néanmoins, pour les écus que vous l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la liberté, le franchisement. FR. SOL. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille remercimens: et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, vaillant, et très distingué seigneur d'Angleterre. PIST. Expound unto me, boy. Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks: and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one, (as he thinks,) the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England. PIST. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.Follow me! [Exit PISTOL. Box. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. [Exit French Soldier. I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true,-The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger; (3) and they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it, but boys. [Exit. |